Roy Crane "How to Draw Buz Sawyer"

"Mix good characters ... action, sex ... into a well-composed picture with blacks, whites and grays. Then with good drawing, good planning, and good luck you should have a pleasing strip."

Roy Crane talks about his work in "Roy Crane and Buz Sawyer" from issue no. 3 of Cartoonist PROfiles, Summer 1969. "The unique quarterly magazine for the professional, the cartoon buff, the student, and all who enjoy cartoons" it's noted under the masthead. This is so early in the history of Jud Hurd's great magazine that he felt obliged to have an explanation on the cover.



Roy Crane shares "How to Draw Buz Sawyer," which originally was part of a scrapbook he donated to the Syracuse University Manuscript Collection. Mr. Crane would continue his series during the early years of Cartoonist PROfiles magazine. (Click here for his "How to Draw Women.")


Roy and Ebba Crane in their home in Orlando, Florida.

He describes the work and pressure of coming up not only with the story, but maintaining the quality, cramming drawings "with endless detail of aircraft carriers, planes and flight gear, all of which had to be done accurately, or the new strip would would fail to gain a sense of reality and prestige."

And, yeah, he talks about "The Reason for Benday."

Below is the article, in its entirety, which begins with "Damn Sunday pages!"







A big hat tip to Don Orehek for this issue of Cartoonist PROfiles!

1968 Visit with Frank King and Roy Crane

Jud Hurd, writing for the June 1968 Cartoonist Magazine, visits the home of Frank King in Florida.



We also get to see the many cartoonist neighbors: Roy Crane (above), Bill Perry, Mel Graff, Dick Moores, Les Turner, Kate Osann and more. Jud relates dines with them and visits their studios in what seems like a lovely time.



My thanks to Don Orehek for this issue of The Cartoonist.

Brian Crane: "Popular PICKLES Captures the Humanity of Humans"

Above photo of Brian Crane by Kristin Murphy for the Deseret News.

From The Mormon Times article "Popular PICKLES Captures the Humanity of Humans"by Carma Widely:

"'It's a tough field to break into, a tougher field to succeed at,' Crane said. 'Many strips don't last more than a few years.'

"...Twenty years later, Earl and Opal Pickles are still going strong. The strip currently appears in more that 700 newspapers and is heading toward 800. Though most readers are in the United States and Canada, 'Pickles' has appeared or does appear in South Korea, Australia, India, Aruba, England, Singapore and the Middle East."

Tour George Herriman's New Orleans

Big hat tip to Potrzebie!